There has been known a rotary compression-molding machine including a die table of a turret having die bores, an upper punch and a lower punch slidably retained above and below each of the die bores, and configured to horizontally rotate the die table and the punches together to compression mold (or make a tablet) a powdery material filled in the die bores when the paired upper and lower punches pass between an upper roll and a lower roll. The molding machine of this type is applied, for example, to produce pharmaceutical tablets, food products, electronic components, and the like.
The lower punches push products molded in the die bores upward to become as high as an upper surface of the die table. The molded products are then caught by a guide member positioned to confront the upper surface of the die table, are guided to a gutter chute slanted downward, and fall along the chute to often be collected in a container disposed vertically below the chute. Such a technique, however, fails to discharge the molded products in the order of molding by the compression-molding machine (i.e., in the order of alignment of the die bores). When the molded products drop from the upper surface of the die table onto the chute, the molded products may hit an inner wall of the chute or the container or may collide with each other to be damaged (e.g., broken, chipped, or abraded). In particular, molded products having less hardness such as orally disintegrating tablets (OD tablets that disintegrate by saliva or a small amount of water in an oral cavity) or chewable tablets (that are crunched in an oral cavity) are seriously damaged by dropping.
There has publicly been known a discharge device configured to discharge products molded by the molding machine one by one. The discharge device includes a rotator (i.e., transfer disc) configured to rotate in synchronization with the die table of the molding machine and having, at an outer circumferential edge, a plurality of pockets that is recessed inward. The pockets catch to discharge the molded products pushed out of the die bores in the die table, and cause the molded products to be transferred along a rotation locus of the pockets (see JP 2011-156576 A and the like).
The molded products captured in the pockets of the rotator receive centrifugal force. The pockets are opened outward, so that the molded products tend to come outward from the pockets in a transfer process. Accordingly, a guide is equipped adjacent to the outer circumferential edge of the rotator, has an arc shape in a planar view, and closes the pockets from outside, to prevent the molded products from being ejected from the pockets.
In a conventional molded product discharge device, pockets of a rotator are sized and shaped to match a size and a shape of molded products to be produced by a compression-molding machine. When the molded products are changed in size or shape, the same rotator is not applicable and thus needs to be replaced.